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Love Thyself First

Dr. Martha’s Monday Morning Motivational

Monday, July 18, 2011

Buddha said, “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” The question is not should you love yourself but do you love yourself? I am not speaking of a vain, self-righteous, selfish love but rather a love of self-acceptance and understanding.

Loving yourself isn’t easy, about four years ago it was brought to my awareness that I didn’t really love myself.  Looking in the mirror and realizing I couldn’t say, “ I love you” to the person staring back at me was an eye opener.  I came to the realization like many that I didn’t really know myself enough to love myself.  It has been a constant journey and much like life it is a journey that continues as long as our breath continues. Learning to love myself has allowed me to in turn truly love others.

When you look in the mirror what do you see? Do you see a person created in God’s perfect image or a myriad of imperfections? To fully love oneself means to have self-respect, a positive self-image, and unconditional self-acceptance.   Loving yourself without reservation or saying “I love myself, but…” It is important to realize every person, bears their own unique characteristics and qualities.  We all vary in talent and ability. No one is perfect and it is those imperfections that make us an individual.  It is important that we know that we all have the ability to work on ourselves and are never done evolving into a better version of ourselves.

In order to love yourself more you must understand yourself more.  Just as in a relationship, getting to know someone allows you to better understand that person and from that understanding comes a greater level of acceptance. Start by realizing you are human and that you have the potential and capability to rise above anything that gets in your way.   It is important that you look and feel your best and to do so you must take care all aspects of yourself: physically, emotionally, and chemically.  You must love yourself enough to want the best for yourself in all areas and not just in a specific area.  Everything in life is about balance and moderation.

Physically, make sure you stay active by exercising and moving about.  Motion is life, making exercise a key aspect of longevity.  Chemically, we are organic beings and not chemical beings, make sure you eat proper foods and take in adequate water.  Remember food is fuel.  Emotionally, take time for yourself and just be still, continually learn, and meditate or pray and listen to God’s sweet voice.  All three aspects are important to maintain an overall level of wellness that creates life’s balance.  Chiropractic is awesome as it maintains nervous system function and addresses all three areas.  It has been an integral part in my journey to love myself for who I was created.

Loving yourself is a crucial foundation for all your relationships, because in order to love another you must first love yourself.  It is impossible to love another more than you love yourself, therefore loving yourself sets the standard for loving others.  By loving yourself more you actually have more love for others and the world needs more love.  So go ahead fall in love with yourself.

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” –Dr. Seuss

Love. Laugh. Adjust.

Dr. Martha Nessler, Innate Girl

We Are All One Adjustment Away from Making Our Lives Work

Dr. Martha’s Monday Morning Motivational

Monday, March 30, 2011

The truth about life is that we are all one adjustment from making our lives work.  Why is it that the one adjustment that is so hard? So often we see what we need to do and hesitate to do it?  Even when we know that that one thing is the necessary tweak to take our lives from good to great? It is all part of the process, part of the journey.  And then once we make that adjustment it is inevitable that we look back and say,  “That wasn’t so bad”.

This concept of just one adjustment to create the necessary energy to create a shift applies to all areas of life.  Looking at life in the terms of three aspects: emotional, chemical, and physical there is always an adjustment we can make to enhance our overall well-being.

In the chemical realm there are many little adjustments we can make and I recommend doing them one by one.  Starting with water is an easy one.  Just by enhancing your overall consumption on a daily basis can increase your innate function.  Adding a lemon takes it a step farther, another small adjustment.  Other adjustments you can begin to make are increasing your fruits and vegetables, decreasing or even eliminating your grains, eliminating dairy, and adding healthy fats take your wellness to the next level.  One or more of these small adjustments simply makes your life work to it’s fullest potential.  If it’s not your style to make multiple changes at once, start with one and make the next adjustment when you are ready.  This should not be a stress.

We often think more about the physical aspect of wellness because we feel that.  Aches and pains grab our attention and make it known that they are in our lives for an unknown length of time.  What people often fail to realize is that when you take one nerve and break it down into parts it is only 10% pain/sensory nerves, with 45% autonomic and 45% motor nerves.  People are able to wrap themselves around the 10% because it nags at them and makes itself known and they push aside or fail to accept the other 90%.  There are many people who don’t even know because they have never been told. People are always shocked when I explain that their low back pain, digestive problems, and reproductive problems are all correlated.  A light bulb goes off and they get it! So, in terms of physical health a simple adjustment by a chiropractor can bridge the gap that is holding an individual back from optimal health.  Our innate thrives when our nervous system is balanced and suddenly our life begins to work. Once we are balanced physically we can get the proper benefits of working out and again we make a necessary adjustment to function better.

Our emotional state can affect every area of our body.  Many times this area is overlooked because individuals don’t want to deal with the feelings that come with making emotional adjustments.  They almost become numb or comfortable and in a sense they deny the emotional stressors they are under.  Great majorities of people are never even taught to deal with emotional stressors or worse yet are taught to stifle them and ignore them. So, dealing with them is like understanding a foreign language.  There are often times that dealing with these stressors affects our relationships with ourselves or other people.  They are especially hard when they affect the people that we love.  I just remind people not every effect is negative – even if it is perceived at that time to be.  It’s also important to remember that often in the heat of dealing with the emotional stressor is the worse, the eye of the storm if you will.  And when thinking of a storm there is always a stillness in the air after the storm that reminds us that the storm played its role.  That it was a necessary evil of sorts to re-establish balance of nature.  This is also true of the emotional adjustments we have to make in order to enhance our lives.  While they are not easy they are necessary to give us the balance we need and to allow our lives to function optimally.

In all three areas it is important that we constantly make adjustments so that we are constantly going from good to great. Some areas are easy to make adjustments and others are hard but realize the more difficult the adjustment the greater the shift.  Adjustments may not always be enjoyable at the time but it’s the result that is worth it.  Remember, we are all one adjustment from making our life work.  What adjustment have you been putting off?

Love. Laugh. Adjust.

Innate Girl